DIFFUSION-WEIGHTED MEGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING IN FOCAL HEPATIC LESIONS

Objective: To determine diagnostic accuracy of diffusion-weighted (DW) MRI in focal lesions of liver. Study design: Cross-sectional study. Setting& Duration: Study was conducted in Department of Radiology, Allied Hospital, Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad for the period from 1st January, 2014 to 30th June, 2016. Sample size: 382 cases. Material & Methods: All patients were examined with ultrasound and immediately thereafter with 1.5 Tesla whole body MR imager, (DWI and ADC images were taken). Results: Mean age of the patients was 57.3 +/- 9.7 year. Distribution of patients by gender showed 65.4% (n=250) male and 34.5 %(n=132) female patients. Of the total 382 patients, hepatic lesions were detected in 300 patients and of those three hundred hepatic lesions, 175 were hepato cellular carcinoma, 50 metastatic lesions, 11 adenomas, 12 FNH, 16 hemangiomata and 36 were hepatic cysts. Sensitivity, Specificity and Diagnostic accuracy of (DW) MRI is 94.34%, 85.71% and 94% respectively. Conclusion: Diffusion-weighted imaging is a valuable tool, for both expert & novice radiologists, in early diagnosis of hepatic focal lesion.